and Michael Justason - Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University Personality Types and Student Performance in an Introductory Physics Course Jason J.B. Harlow, David M. Harrison, Andrew Meyertholen and Brian Wilson - Department of Physics, University of Toronto and Michael Justason - Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University Abstract: We measured the personality type of the students in a large introductory physics course of mostly life science students using the True Colors instrument. We found large correlations of personality type with performance on the Pre-Course Force Concept Inventory (FCI), both term tests, the Post-Course FCI, and the final examination. We also saw correlations with the normalized gain on the FCI. The personality profile of the students in this course is very different from the profile of the physics faculty, and also very different from the profile of students taking the introductory physics course intended for physics majors and specialists.

True Colors https://truecolorsintl.com/ Each of us has a different and unique personality; however, there are commonalities that we share. True Colors® is an attempt to identify various personality styles and label them with 4 colours. Each colour is associated with certain personality traits or behaviours. Everyone has some degree of each colour, but one colour is predominant. Jung published the results of his almost 20 years of research in 1921 in Psychological Types. 20 years later Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katharine Cook Briggs slightly changed Jung’s theory, and the resulting Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is now the most widely used psychological typing tool. (16 types) Keirsey simplified the Myers-Briggs classification into four “temperament” groupings based on the dichotomies he considered to be most important. In 1979 Lowry introduced a metaphor for Keirsey’s temperaments, using four colors in a system called True Colors.

Try it Yourself!! A + H + K + N + S D + E + L + P + Q C + F + J + O + R B + G + I + M + T 3 minutes + 1 minute. (4 total)

Gold Blue Green Orange “Guardian” “Idealist” MBTI: Sensing / Judging MBTI: Intuition / Feeling Mediators, Optimistic, Passionate Gold “Guardian” MBTI: Sensing / Judging Love to plan, detail-oriented, trustworthy Green “Rational” MBTI: Intuition / Thinking Intellectual, idea-person, philosophical Orange “Artisan” MBTI: Sensing / Perceiving Playful, energetic, risk-taker

Us Our First-Year Life Sciences Students

Intro. To Physics Fall 2016 First half of a two-semester course for non-physics science students Newtonian mechanics up to oscillations and waves ~1000 students; 800 in MW 11am lecture in Convocation Hall, 200 in MW 5pm lecture Weekly 2-hour “Labratorials” with PER-based pedagogy. Students work in teams of 4, share the mark, 18:1 student:teacher ratio We give pre- and post-course FCI: “Force Concept Inventory”. Typical gains are ~0.4 Students were not told of their FCI results or True Color results

Pre-course Force Concept Inventory (FCI)   All Colours Blue Gold Green Orange Number with Colour 879 162 419 200 98 Mean Pre FCI 50% 41% 49% 57% Standard error in mean 0.8% 1.6% 1.1% 1.8% 2.4% sigma Green - Blue +6.6

Final Mark in Course All Colors Blue Gold Green Orange count 585 91 274 145 75 mean 73 67 74 77 71 Standard error in mean 0.6 1.6 0.8 1.2 1.5 sig Green - Blue 4.8

Dropout Rate of the Course All Colors Blue Gold Green Orange Original Number 879 162 419 200 98 Number who dropped 293 70 145 55 23 Percent dropped 33% 43% 35% 28% 23% dropped % error 2% 5% 3% 4% sigma Green - Blue −2.5

Gain on the FCI over 1 semester All Colours Blue Gold Green Orange Number Pre&Post 564 90 262 139 73 Mean Gain +0.33 +0.26 +0.31 +0.42 +0.32 err in gain 0.03 0.06 0.04 0.07 0.09 sigma Green - Blue 1.701

Conclusions Results of a quick self-reflection on “True Colors®” personality traits correlate highly with learning in physics Green students, on average, significantly outperform blue students on summative and formative assessments, with gold and orange in between Orange students are the least likely group to drop the course Physics faculty and students are mostly green, while our non-physics students are more diverse Our teaching methods and assessment tools may be biased to benefit personality types similar to our own

Future Work How can we reduce the green-blue performance gap? The “Blue” personality type is warm, friendly, compassionate, people-oriented, empathetic, kind, and interested in social causes – can we adjust our teaching style in minor ways to reach out to these students more effectively? This summer we are forming “all-green” and “all-blue” focus groups. An outside facilitator will investigate how students interact with each other and the material from the course This fall we are planning to try using personality data to assign seating in teams of 4. Is it better to randomly mix personality types, or to group similar personality types together?